Advocacy in Surinam

WoW travelled to Surinam, to give a training on the use of misoprostol for safe abortion and to discuss the possibility of a harm reduction model to provide information about misoprostol for safe abortion.

The last moment press conference was received well. There were approximately 10 journalists including television news chanels. At least 6 media outlets reported on the press conference One of the news papers even quotes the whole misoprostol instructions for abortion!

Background

The registration of maternal mortality in Surinam is incomplete but is estimated to be more than 100 per 100.000 live births. Approximately 10% of the population lives in the interior of the country with very little access to health care in general and maternal health care. In surinam 90% of the approximately 10.000 births take place in the hospital, the rest of the births take place in the interrior without trained personnel. The amount of illegal abortions is between 8000 and 10.000 per year.

Availability of misoprostol

Before the training we researched the availability of misoprostol. We went to approximately 6 pharmacies but they only sell misoprostol with a doctors prescription and all know it is used for abortion. We also went to the black market and it is available for 200-300 SRD for 4 tablets, this makes the amount needed for a safe abortion very high and as high as the costs for a gynaecologist.

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